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Samuel Osborn and Company was a steelmaker and engineering tool manufacturer situated in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
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Samuel Osborn and Company was a steelmaker and engineering tool manufacturer situated in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England.
Samuel Osborn junior was born in Sheffield in 1826, his father, also named Samuel, was a partner in the firm of Clark and Osborn, makers of pocket knives, razors, brushes and tortoiseshell combs.
Samuel junior did not follow in fathers footsteps but, leaving school at 15, he joined city drapers, T.B. & W Cockayne. After seven years he moved into the steel industry and joined toolmakers Thomas Ellin & Son later moving to Henry Russell & Company where he became a travelling salesman.
In 1851 he set up on his own as a file manufacturer with premises in Broad Lane which were named Clyde Works. Within 5 years his company expanded and he rented a six - hole crucible furnace on Carver Street in the city centre, whilst only the following year he set up a tilt and forge in the Philadelphia district of the city, the new site being named Brookhill Works.
Osborn, like many other steel makers, showed an interest in his workers health and in particular two of the major illnesses which affected the file making industry: grinders asthma and lead poisoning. By 1864 he discovered an amalgam to replace the soft bed of lead in which the files were placed when being cut by hand. To reduce contact between his workers and lead he developed a file cutting machine although the craftsmen were opposed fearing job losses and a loss of quality in their product, neither being proved to be true.
Osborn’s brother-in-law, William Fawcett, went into partnership with him in 1867 and new premises, in the Wicker area of the city, were bought the following year, these taking the name Clyde Steel & Iron Works, this becoming their main base of operations, the large Head Office of the company fronting the Wicker (these buildings still stand and house retail businesses at street level and, above, the Sheffield and District African-Caribbean Community Association).
In 1870 Osborn met Robert Forester Mushet, an iron master working in the Forest of Dean where he was producing a new alloy steel, considered far superior to crucible steel. Osborn bought the sole rights to manufacture 'R. Mushet's Special Steel' (R.M.S) and Mushet's two sons, Henry and Edward, moved up to Sheffield to oversee its manufacture. Business was booming with orders created by the Franco-Prussian War and the development of the railways.
The bubble, however, burst and in 1874 Osborn was forced to file for liquidation.
With industrial development, a new market for Mushet’s Self Hardening Steel was found in America and the company opened a London Office. Taking on new partners and making connections in continental Europe he paid off all his creditors within ten years, the company being registered as the second largest private enterprise in the Sheffield & District Steel & Allied Trades Association. Expanding again, in 1885 he bought and expanded the Rutland Works, in the Neepsend area of the city.
Samuel Osborn died in 1891. The company, however, continued.
Looking for sales potential from overseas the company set up a South African subsidiary in 1919. Based in the mining area outside Johannesburg, the new company was founded to market their parent company’s Sheffield made special steels for industry and, particularly, mining in South Africa.
It was seen in the mid-1960s that some rationalisation was needed within the Sheffield steel industry, particularly steel founding. With respect to this Samuel Osborn & Company split into separate divisions. Similar moves were taking place at Edgar Allen and Company, Jessop Saville & Company and Hadfields Limited.
The intention was to merge the foundry interests of the four companies to form one large steel foundry with the capability of making castings from a few ounces to 40 tons, with only English Steel Corporation's Grimesthorpe foundry in the city able to make larger. As negotiations were taking place the deal fell through leaving Osborn and Hadfields to merge as Osborn Hadfields Steel Founders, with the foundry being located on Hadfield's East Hecla (Vulcan Road) site.
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
The Kelham Island Museum is an industrial museum on Alma Street, alongside the River Don, in the centre of Sheffield, England. It was opened in 1982.
Sir John Brown, English industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade.
John Brown and Company of Clydebank was a Scottish marine engineering and shipbuilding firm. It built many notable and world-famous ships including RMS Lusitania, RMS Aquitania, HMS Hood, HMS Repulse, RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and Queen Elizabeth 2.
The Sheffield Blitz is the name given to the worst nights of German Luftwaffe bombing in Sheffield, England, during the Second World War. It took place during nighttime on 12 and 15 December 1940.
Vickers Limited was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entire large ships, cars, tanks and torpedoes followed. Airships and aircraft were added, and Vickers jet airliners were to remain in production until 1965.
Edgar Allen and Company was a steel maker and engineer, which from the late 19th century was based at Imperial Steel Works, Tinsley, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. The site was bounded by Sheffield Road, Vulcan Road and the Sheffield District Railway to which it was connected.
Stewarts & Lloyds was a steel tube manufacturer with its headquarters in Glasgow at 41 Oswald Street. The company was created in 1903 by the amalgamation of two of the largest iron and steel makers in Britain: A. & J. Stewart & Menzies, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland; and Lloyd & Lloyd, Birmingham, England.
The Northern General Hospital is a large teaching hospital and Major Trauma Centre in Sheffield, England. Its departments include Accident and Emergency for adults, with children being treated at the Sheffield Children's Hospital on Western Bank. The hospital is managed by the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Robert Forester Mushet was a British metallurgist and businessman, born on 8 April 1811, in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. He was the youngest son of Scottish parents, Agnes Wilson and David Mushet; an ironmaster, formerly of the Clyde, Alfreton and Whitecliff Ironworks.
Firth Brown Steels was initially formed in 1902, when Sheffield steelmakers John Brown & Company exchanged shares and came to a working agreement with neighbouring company Thomas Firth & Sons. In 1908 the two companies came together and established the Brown Firth Research Laboratories and it was here, in 1912, under the leadership of Harry Brearley they developed high chrome stainless steel. The companies continued under their own management until they formally merged in 1930 becoming Firth Brown Steels. The company is now part of Sheffield Forgemasters.
Hadfields Limited of Hecla and East Hecla Sheffield, Yorkshire was a British manufacturer of special steels in particular manganese alloys and the manufacture of steel castings.
Jessop Saville and Company, the Sheffield-based special steel makers, was founded in 1929 following a merger of J.J.Saville and Co., Limited and William Jessop and Company, both of these being long established in the trade and in the city.
Mushet steel, also known as Robert Mushet's Special Steel and, at the time of its use, self-hardening steel and air-hardening steel, is considered to be both the first tool steel and the first air-hardening steel. It was invented in 1868 by Robert Forester Mushet. Prior to Mushet steel, steel had to be quenched to harden it. It later led to the discovery of high-speed steel.
David Mushet was a Scottish engineer, known for his inventions in the field of metallurgy. Mushet was an early advocate of animal rights.
Darkhill Ironworks, and the neighbouring Titanic Steelworks, are internationally important industrial remains associated with the development of the iron and steel industries in the 19th century. Both are scheduled monuments. They are located on the edge of a small hamlet called Gorsty Knoll, just to the west of Parkend, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England. Historically, Darkhill was sometimes written Dark Hill.
Whitecliff Ironworks, sometimes referred to as Whitecliff Furnace, at Coleford, in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, are industrial remains associated with the production of iron, using coke, in the Forest of Dean.
35 Well Meadow Street is the site of a house, attached workshops, courtyard complex and a crucible furnace. It is located in the St Vincent's Quarter of the City of Sheffield in England, it is also part of the Well Meadow Conservation Area. The buildings and furnace are grade II* listed buildings because of their importance as part of Sheffield’s industrial heritage and it is regarded as, “One of the most significant of the city’s 19th century industrial monuments”. It has now been converted into residences.
Crucible Industries, commonly known as Crucible, is an American company which develops and manufactures specialty steels, and is the sole producer of a line of sintered steels known as Crucible Particle Metallurgy (CPM) steels. The company produces high speed, stainless and tool steels for the automotive, cutlery, aerospace, and machine tool industries.
The Clyde Iron Works was a Scottish-based ironworking plant which operated from 1786 to 1978.
